Can-cutter



E. B. TRACY.

CAN CllTER.

APPLICATION man ocr. 16, 1.91.9.

Patented Aug. 30, 1921.

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QN m1 N fitto/cnaf -To all 'whom t may concern.'

UNITED STATES 'PATENT OFFICE.

vEERiNES'l B. TRACY, SEATTLE, WSHINGTON.'

CAN-CUTTER.

Be it known that I, ERNEST B. TRACY, a citizen Iof the United'` States, residing at Seattle,in the county of King and State of Washington, have invented certain new and useful mprovements in Can-Cutters, f of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to tin-can cutting machines; and its primary object is the provision .of a machine of this lcharacter ,for cutting heads from rectangular oil containingr cans to enable the latter to-be subsequently bent or pressed into shape and sizes for convenience in packing and shipping., A-further object is the provisionuofmeans whichpare rendered effective coincidently with ,the cutting operation for bending a head into the space betweenthe side walls of a can. A furtherY object is to provide a can-cutting machine having means to automatically feed the cans into and out of position in which the can ends are cut and bent. With these and other objects in. view, the inventionconsists in the novel construction, arrangement and combination of parts as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a view partly in side elevation and partly in longitudinal section of a machine embodying my invention,..said section being taken through 1-1 of Fig. 4. Fig. 2 is a detail vertical sectional view of ,a can and the cutter to illustrate theaction of the same and of the bending element. Fig. 3 is a sectional view through 3 3 of Fig. 4. Fig. 4 is an T end elevation ofthe machine with the frame thereof partly broken away. Fig. 5 is a perspective view .ofthe cutter, which is broken away at one corner to illustrate the bending element thereof.

In said drawings, the numerals 10 designate side rails and 11 the legs of a table, to the side rails .of which are secured yspaced upright bars 12. These bars, desirably, are of the type conventionally known asangle bars which are arranged to afford corner guide ways for a vertically recip-rocatory cutter which is indicated asa whole by 13. The siderails 11 of said tab-le are also, desirably, angle bars which are 4arranged as shown in Fig. 4 to lprovide horizontalk track flanges 101 and upright side flanges 102 to respectively support and-guide the cans in upright positions as indicatedl by broken lines C in Figs. 1 and 4.

A coniferen Such endless cham 14.:

passing about driving and driven sprocket wheels 15 and 16 located adjacent to the ends of the tab-le serve through the instrumentality ofV chain attachments 141 `to progresslvely feed the cans through the frame afforded by the bars 12, Jsaid conveyer 'being' intermittently driven to cause the successive cans to be at rest within said frame while the aforesaid cutter is moved into and from its operative ositions, as will be presently explained.A the conveyer is accomplished from a power driven crank' shaft 17 locatedV above said frame as by means of pairs 18 and 19 of toothed bevel gears connecting the ends of a two-part intermediate shaft with the power shaft 17 and the shaft 151- of sprocket wheel15. n

The parts 20 andv 21 of the intermediate shaft above referred toare journaled in axially alined bearing boxes 22 and are separably coupled together by means of aclutch having one of its members 23 rigidly secured to the shaft part 21 and its other member 24 splined to the shaft part 20. IVhen said clutch membersv are coupled yit is apparent that both of said shaft parts are rotated as a Asingle shaft todrive the conveyer; but when the clutch is disengaged the 4motion n of the conveyer is interrupted.

Specification of Letters Patent. i Patented Allg'.` 30, 1921. Y Application filed October 16,1919. Serial No. 331,145. y

uch intermittent driving of 'l For disengaging the clutch,- I provide'aI link 25 having a forked end 25l engaging 1n a peripheral groove in the clutch memberv 24 and having a stud 252 taking in a cam groove 261 provided in a* wheel 26 which is mounted on said power shaft. The cam groove 261, as shown in Fig 3, is formed withr a portion 262 arrangedr concentrically to thewheel axis so that while the stud 25'2 is in such concentric portion the shiftable clutch member 24 will operatively engage the complementary' member 23. y y

To insure the stopping of a ycan in position within said frame to be properly acted upon by the aforesaid cutter, I lprovide, a verticallyk movable gate 27 arranged .to be brought downwardly into operative position in. front o f the can and cooperates with stops 28 operating upwardly into .the path of the cans travel.

i To actuate said gate and -stopthe\ former is connected to lifting rod 29 having fingers 291 engageable by pins 263 provided respectively on wheels 26 and 26 and 'arranged to elevate the gate out/of the path ofthe cans and in cio-posities to springs. 30 which .Serve junction with said gate. 301 represents .a spring connected to the frame bars 12 at one side of the table and cooperates with the bars'at the other side thereofto retain a can in position laterally of the frame to have its upper head cut and turned down against a side of the can.

Such cutting and bending operations are accomplished by means of the cutter 13 which is vertically reciprocated in the frame by means of a pitman 31 connecting the crank pin 171 of the shaft 17 with a transverse bar member 131 of the cutter.

Saidcutter consists of three vertical cuti ting blades 32 and a fourth blade of `less depth than the cutting blades and having an upper plane portion 33 and a lower portion 332 which is curved inwardly between the adjacent cutting blades as shown in Figs. 2 and 5.

' The cutter blades may bemade of a number of plates `joined at their meeting edges or they may be formed from a single plate which is bent to provide the various blades, the extremities of such a plate being joined as at 34:, Fig. 5. 35 represent reinforcing bars provided at the corners of the cutter and serve as wearing elements in the guides afforded by the framebars 12.

The lower edges of the blades 32 are serrated to provide ineach blade a central tooth 321 of an isosceles shape located between acute angle tooth elements 322 which, at the corners remote from the bending blade 33-331, join corresponding elementsl of the adjacent cutting blades 32 to furnish corner teeth of rectangular shapes in horizontal section.

The central teeth 321 moreover extend below a plane projected horizontallythrough the points of the outer teeth 321 so that when the cutter is forced down into the work the central part of the head along each of its margins is cut first, then the head is cutat each corner, the central and. corner teeth thereupon act mutually to connectthe respective cuts whereby the head is severed from the side walls along three edges of the same.

The head C1, F ig. 2, thus cut by the cutter is connected along one of its edges, as at C2, with the can side C3 and when encountered n by the bending blade is forced downwardly into the can body, the curved part 331 of such blade serving to ride down, so to speak, upon the head to cause it to be brought into juxtaposition with the inner surface of the can side C3.

, In operation, cans placed upon the table, at the left-hand side in Fig. lare carriedby the `chain attachments `141 `into and through the opening of the frame comprising thel bars 12. The spacing of said attachments is such that the conveyer chain when intermittently brought to rest, by the driving shaft 2021 therefor being rendered temporarily inoperative, will correspondingly cause the cans to be successively presented in position to be acted upon by the cutter as above described.

The cans furthermore are positively arrested. vupon reaching the referred to position bythe gate 27 and stops 28.

The construction and operation of the invention will be understood from the fore` going.

. While I have described'with some particularity, the preferred embodiment of my invention I. do not wish to confine myself thereto, as Y without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the appended claims. y

What I claim, is;

1. In a machine for cutting heads from square cans, the combination with the machine frame, can feeding devices, a cutter provided with three cutting blades arranged for reciprocatory movements in said frame, and means to operate said cuttery whereby cans fed to the latter will through the medium of the cutting blades have a head thereof cut along three of its edges, of means provided on the cutter and rendered operable subsequent tothe cutting of a head to bend the same into the can body.

2. In a machine for cutting headsfrom cans, a reciprocatory cutter having three cutting blades and'a head bending blade.

said bladesbeing arranged in rectangular re'l I lations, said cutting blades serving to cut the head along three of its sides, and said bend# ing blade serving to forcethe head thus cut by said cutter blades into the can and against one of the side walls thereof.

3. In a machine for cutting heads from cans', a cutter having three cutting blades provided with'` toothed cutting edges, and a bending blade disposed in rectangular relations with respect to each other, lsaid bending blade terminating ata plane in spaced relations from the cutting teeth and extends inwardly between the cutting blades which are adjacent to said bending blade, means to supply cans to said cutter, and means to reciprocate the cutter whereby a can head is successively cut along three of its edges from ythe sides of a can and bent down into the can body and into ljuxtaposition with the fourth side of the can. 1

Signed at Seattle, Washington, this 30th day of September, 1919.

" ERNEST B'.` TRACY.

Witnesses: f

. PIERRE BARNES,

.ELIzABETH JOHNSON,

changes may be made therefrom 

